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Tuesday, 14 May 2013

On Voting

Election Day in Beautiful British Columbia, and I feel
exhausted.Is it the prospect of casting
a ballot and anxiety over the results, or just a lack of sleep?

I tried to count how many times I’ve voted over my
increasingly long life, but lost track after about a dozen (including federal,
provincial, municipal).Strangely,
though I work for a student society, I’ve hardly ever voted in a student
society election.

A co-worker complained that just once she’d like to vote for
someone who was better than the lesser of two evils, and I can understand the
sentiment, but I rather like voting.I
would do it more often, but they only let you vote once in each election.Think howmuch more voting you could do if you could cast multiple votes.In fact, I remember a student politician who
did just that, but it had unpleasant repercussions.

So I walked to the Voting
Place, as they call it – there must be a more
technical term, but that’s what it said.Had to dodge numerous cars: motorized voters.Perhaps they should have drive-through voting
places for them; in fact, didn’t I read about that somewhere?

Anyway, I managed not to get killed on the way to doing my
civic duty, arriving at a Seniors Centre (usually I vote in a church, but
perhaps my age is catching up with me: my voting number was 90, which is not
quite my age yet …)

When I opened my ballot, my eye was caught by the Platinum
Party.Wonder who they are, I thought; I
really should have done my homework.But
really there were only two choices in the election, and I let my intuition tell
me who to vote for.

I try to follow my intuition or my gut instinct in
voting.I’ve gone against it only once
that I can recall, and that’s the one vote I most regret and would call back if
I could.Not that it matters
collectively.One vote never decides an
election (or almost never), but I like to be true to myself and vote for who I
really want to vote for, and that time I didn’t.I was too much in the grip of my upbringing
that time, yet my inner voice told me it was time to break from that and do
something radically different.I didn’t,
though, not that time: in later elections, yes, by which time it didn’t seem
that radical anymore, but not that once, and I am sorry for it.

Then there’s the horse race aspect.The results which will come in hours from
now, and which it may be interesting to watch, though I have a house guest from
afar and she may not be interested in what we British Columbians do.I was interested in her province’s election
when I was there last September, but then Quebec is always interesting.And they even had shooting.

When I left the polling station, an elderly woman came at me
with determination.Uh oh, I thought, am
I going to be attacked inside the Voting
Place?But
she only wanted to give me a sticker saying I’d voted.Interesting, I thought.That might help advertise the election and
increase turnout, so I took the sticker.Didn’t put in on, though.Voting
is a private thing.